Polysiloxane compositions are excellent in heat resistance, cold resistance, weather resistance, light resistance, chemical stability, electrical characteristics, flame retardancy, water resistance, transparency, colorability, anti-stick properties, and anti-corrosion properties, and thus have been utilized in various industrial fields. In particular, it is known that polyhedral polysiloxanes are more excellent in various properties such as heat resistance, light resistance, chemical stability, and low dielectricity owing to their unique chemical structure. On the other hand, a polyhedral polysiloxane is generally a polyfunctional solid compound, and thereby the polyhedral polysiloxane has poor handleability and moldability and it is difficult to control the reaction of the polyhedral polysiloxane. Thus, it is difficult to provide a molded product from the polyhedral polysiloxane.
For example, Non-Patent Document 1 discloses a hydrosilylated curable composition produced using a functional group-containing polyhedral polysiloxane. In this disclosure, the polyhedral polysiloxane as a starting material is a polyfunctional solid and thereby it is difficult to control a curing reaction of the polysiloxane, leading to difficulties in coating and injection molding.
As polyhedral polysiloxane compounds, various compounds with different functional groups have been known, such as an epoxy group-containing compound (Patent Document 1), a (meth)acryloyl group-containing compound (Patent Document 2), a hydrolyzable silyl group-containing compound (Patent Document 3), and an oxetanyl group-containing compound (Patent Document 4). These compounds are allowed to be cross-linked by heat or light in the presence of curing initiators to provide cured products.
In addition, there have been disclosed curable compositions produced using polyhedral polysiloxanes containing a group such as an epoxy group or a phenyl group (Patent Documents 1, 5, and 6). Such curable compositions cannot sufficiently benefit from properties of polysiloxane compositions; for example, staining occurs on the compositions upon heating at high temperatures.
It can be envisaged that one primary application of these compounds is for various resists. In such a case, the compounds are required to be developable. Nowadays, alkali development is generally employed as a primary developing method, and resists are required to have alkali solubility. The aforementioned compounds are, however, insoluble to alkali, and thus it is required to impart alkali solubility to the compounds.
For imparting alkali solubility, for example, introduction of an organic acid group such as a carboxylate group or a sulfonate group has been known. The introduction of these groups may problematically cause decrease in heat and light resistances that polyhedral polysiloxanes originally have. In other words, what has been required is a technique for imparting alkali solubility without decrease in heat and light resistances.
Materials prepared using polyhedral polysiloxane compounds are disclosed as mentioned above, but there is no disclosure of liquid compounds having properties of siloxane compositions, and also having excellent handleability and moldability. It has been desired to develop a new material.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Kokai Publication 2004-359933    Patent Document 2: Japanese Kokai Publication 2004-143449    Patent Document 3: Japanese Kokai Publication 2006-269402    Patent Document 4: Japanese Kokai Publication 2005-23256    Patent Document 5: Japanese Kohyo Publication 2004-529984    Patent Document 6: Japanese Kokai Publication 2006-22207    Non-Patent Document 1: J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1998, 120, 8380-8391